Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Tuesday Blog

Following
an operator's error (pushing button order wrong), our draft blog of
yesterday disappeared from Grey Power's computer. However, Robin rescued the
situation by sending one out live aroundmidnight last
night (ship's

time) to
ensure you all had fresh news.

So what
happenedon Sunday? As you would expect, ourSunday started
with a sermon
from our Captain, preached from his Harken winch grinder to the assembled
crew who had turned out in theirSunday's best
to eagerly listen to the
words of wisdom of their leader. Apparently, we are reliably informed
that it was based on Matthew Chapter 7 verses 1 to 7. Why beholdest the bede
in thy brothers eye and not the mote in thine own eye.

It was a
basic lecture about not being critical of the skipper!

After
such an invigorating speech, a special breakfast consisting of our last eggs
was served up. Thereafter the rest of the morning was spent avoiding
the intense heat of the sun.

I am
pleased to report that cigarette inventory remained on track as a result of
outstanding self control from the crew. The tea bags currently remain
safe as Grey Power's pace remains in sync with the rate of consumption.
We are now concerned that we may run short of vitamin C as we are down
to our last lemon. We hope that this will not affect adversely the health of
the crew. Pickling the lemons has been used for the last 48 hours to extend
their shelf life and maximise the extraction of goodness.

After the
heat of the day, we were rewarded with a heavy rain shower (which continued
into the night) but enabled all to have a hair wash with varying types of
shampoo (crew = shower gel; captain = upmarket fairy liquid!)

The night
ofSunday toMonday was
largely uneventful with reasonable progress
although an autopilot malfunction was experienced during the later part of
the night. Dilip ending up hand steering for a significant time but

this was
remedied by Robin switching to the backup gyro compass. So all back up
and running...

Our plan
establishedon Sunday night
was to rendez-vous over coffee at5 am Mondaymorning
and during this conference, it was decided that we would not gybe as
anticipated as the weather information received from Simon

indicates
a better solution continuing as we presently are albeit at some point we
will need to turn towards Bermuda or risk missing the island all together.

The
discovery of the remains of a birds nest in the boom incensed the skipper. He
thundered about loving birds but not when they nested in his blankety boom. The odd
flying fish has appeared on deck but none worth cooking so far.

After the
afternoon heat, we gybed on a wind shift to try and close the gap to the
island. This resulted in a wonderful few hours of downwind sailing. Robin used the
flat water and the steadyness of Grey Power to climb the mast twice to lash
the staysail and jib to the furlers. We are hence now able to roll furl our
headsails. In celebration of this, a good bottle was sought from the freeze
dried reserve locker!!!

Other
than than that, Joshua has decided that he can cook Italian food, Francesca
might (probably will) have a different opinion. Dilip and Robin decided
that in order to protect their taste buds a bottle of Chianti should be

opened as
a safeguard.

Post dinner
Joshua has been awarded the bage of Italian Cooking (Pasta only)